Thermally insulated articles



March 24, 1959 B. slMlNow THERMALLY INSULATED ARTICLES Filed Nov'. 25, 1955 Unite States arent L 2,87a4s1 Patented Mar. 24, 1959 THERMALLY INSULATED ARTICLES Benjamin Siminow, Brooklyn, N.Y. Application November 25, 1955, SerialNo. 548,950

z claims. (cl. z-z43) A This invention relates to improvements in vthermally insulating materialand articles made therefrom, such as shown), in the case of mechanical filling, may be passed margin or to the left one. Consequently, the spout (not along the left-hand margin and bottom margin being jackets, trousers, sleeping bags, and other articles del signed to keep persons warm.

The old quilt` type of articles of this naturev involved" placing a filling of down or the like vbetween two sheets of material and then sewing the sheets together in squares to hold the filling in place. With such construction, the down or other filling material eventually shifted away from the lines of stitches. Consequently, along such lines the thickness of the quilt became substantially that of the two sheets of material only.

In other constructions two outer sheets were connected together by strips of material secured Aalong their respective margins to such sheets and extending perpendicularly therebetween to form elongated pockets for the reception of filling material-the two outer sheets being separated from each other by the width of ksuch strips.v However, this construction allowed the down filling to' move along the extended pockets formed by the saidI outer sheets and the spacing strips.

In the present invention, such movement of the filling material is prevented by arranging spacing ystrips in a novel manner so that, in conjunction with the Aouter and inner sheets, while a series of relatively small, substantially closed, quadrangular compartments are formed,'also aligned corner openings are provided for the introduction of the ,filling material. After the filling material has been introduced, the pressure developed thereby in a compartment will serve substantially to close the aforesaid corner openings so that said material will remain in place.

It is an object of the invention to provide in such articles a novel compartment arrangement which will admit not only ready filling of the respective compartments, but will assure also that the filling material remains adequately confined and with uniform distribution over long periods of time. i

In carrying out the invention, these compartments are formed by sewing the margins of strips of suitable material to the two outside sheets along zigzag or stepped lines. These specially-arranged strips are located such that the juxtaposed corners formed by respective strips remain unattached to each other and are in substantial register diagonally to afford temporary aligned openings for filling purposes.

As the corners formed of adjacent strips are thus not sewn together, they can be separated temporarily to provide openings large enough to permit the insertion forcibly of the insulating material, either manually or through ya tubular spout of a blower or the like, into the compartments formed by such strips. Before inserting the filling material, however, the open ends of the compartments along one margin, say the right-hand one, as well as the openings at the top margin of the novel article are sewn together. The remaining openings lie then along a series of diagonals running 45 from the top and right margins of the group of compartments to the bottom progressively completely sewn together to finish the article. The nature of the invention, however, will best be understood when describedin connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

, Fig. 1 is a planview, partly in horizontal section and.' A with 'portion broken away, illustrating a simple embodiment of the invention.

Fig 2 lis a vertical section therethrough, on an enlarged scale, taken on the line 2--2, Fig. l'of the drawings, `and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig; 3 is a fragmentary transverse section on an enlarged scale, taken on the line 3 3, Fig. 1 of the drawf ings; and Fig. 4 is a similar view illustrating the sealing action between compartments of the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively a fragmentary vertical the edge sealing arrangement.

Referring tothe drawings, the novel article, which isf I shown for simplicity as a pillow construction 10, comprises two separated sheets 11 and 12 of exible material' such as balloon cloth, twill, poplin, nylon, etc., and united along their juxtaposed edges as by stitching. In constructing the article, the union is to beeffected initially only along two adjacent pairs of the juxtaposed edges, as will hereinafter be more fully set forth.

In accordance with the invention, the space between the two sheets is to be divided into a plurality of symmetrically arranged and substantially quadrangularly A shaped compartments. Thus, successive rows of com- B-4; C-l, C-Z, C-3 and C-4; and D-l, D-"Z, D-3 and D-4, shown by way, of example as squares,,are formed in vaI novel manner by means of successive strips' ofwe'b'` bing of material such as linen, sheeting, etc., interposed between the respective sheets and sewed along their opposite edges respectively to the corresponding under surfaces of said sheets, as is indicated. However, these compartment-forming strips are located between the sheets in a novel manner by stepping or zigzagging the same so as to allow of the formation of diagonally aligned corner openings between abutting compartments.

The steps are conveniently marked initially on the respective sheets 11, 12 by means of a crayon which is to be drawn along a correspondingly shaped gauge (not shown) applied temporarily thereto; and the respective strips are successively then sewed along the markings, beginning at one of the corner compartments, as the compartment A-1 to be formed of the juxtaposed sheets and strip. All compartments will then be completed except outermost or marginal ones which are open along their respective outer edges. These are to be brought together and stitched to each other, as is illustrated in connection with the particular compartments A-3, B-3, C-3, C-4 and D-4, Fig. 2.

Thus, in the specific embodiment illustrated by way of example, beginning with the compartment A-1, a strip 15 (single step) forms its inner side wall and bottom wall as well as the one side wall of compartment A-Z and the top wall of compartment B-1. The compartment A-Z is completed, except for the top edge, by

3 a strip 16 bysimilarly stepping said strip which is continued to form'the one side and bottom of compartment B-l and top of compartment B-Z and a side of compartment A-3. Similarly, a strip 17-provides the other side and bottom of compartment A-S, land the .one side and bottom of compartment B-2, as well as of the compartment C-1. In addition, ,it provides the tops o f compartments'B-B, `C2 and D--1.I In the case of compartment A-4, strip 18 provides only the bottom for this compartment `and the top and one side of compartment B-4, and alsotboth the one side and bottom of compartments B-3 and C-2, as well as the one side of compartment `D-1 and the tops for compartments C-3 and D-2. Strip 19 provides the bottom of compartments B-4 and C-3, las Well as the other `side of the vlatter compartment and one side of compartments C-4 and D-3. Strip V20 completes, except `for `the Amarginal closures, all the compartments by providing the bottom of .compartment C-4 as well as ,the top of compartment ,D-4 and its one side as well as the other Ys ide of compartment D43.

The marginal compartments are completed by bringing their juxtaposed edges together, as is indicated in Figs. 1 and 2,'and stitching the one to the other. Or, as is indicated in Figs. and 6, if the box form is to be continued all the way, a band 25 of substantially the width of the spacing between sheets 11, 12 is sewed to the respective edge portions 26, 27 of said sheets around the entire article.

In securing in place the various strips, it is to be noted that their cornerforming portions are slightly rounded, as shown, juxtaposed corners being unattached and slightly separated from each other suiciently to afford temporary openings, as shown in Figs. l and 3, and suitable for the introduction of filler material 28 such as down and down mixtures jor their synthetic equivalents. Thus, an opening 30 will be provided between the compartments B-1 and A-2; openings 31, 32 between the compartments C-1, B-2 and A-3; openings 33, `34, 35 between the compartments D-1, C-2, B-3 and A-4; openings 36,"37 between the compartments D-2, C-3 and B-4; and opening 38 between the compartments D-3, C-4-all openings being .diagonally aligned.

Also, before completing the sealing at the marginal edges, as along the bottom and left margins in the present instance, a temporary opening in the outermost corner of a compartment is to be left for the filling of such compartment, for example, the opening 40 indicated in connection with the compartment D-3; and similarly with respect to the remaining peripheral compartments. Attention is directed in this connection to the novel diagonally aligned series of openings which permit intro duction of the thermally insulating filler material manually or by means of conventional blowing equipment, as is well understood. Also, as a compartment fills and the filling operation progressively moves from one compartment to the next one, the corner opening involved substantially 4closes under the presure of the filler material, as is indicated in Fig. 4 in connection with openings 30, 34. To this end, one of the sides of the article and the top or bottom,ffor example, as the tops of compartments A-l, A-2, A-3, A-4 and sides of compartments A4, B4, C-4, D-4, are to becompletely sealed before the introduction is effected. The furthermost compartment of a diagonally aligned series will, of course, be the one first to be filled, the filling operation progressing outwardly toward Vthe supply source.

`The provision of Vthe .aforesaid dividing walls or partitions,.thus,formed, serves not .only better to maintain the shape of the article, but insures `against displacement of ,thedistributed thermally insulating material.

yI Claim:

l. A thermally insulated article, comprising inner and outer Vseparated sheets of exiblematerial closed along their outer deges to ,afford a casing; and a plurality of flexible webbing members stitched progressively from one edge of the casing `diagonally across the `same to an adjacent edge, the webbing members being `successively stepped a like .extent andthe adjacent .corners of the steps being juxtaposed to form compartments, the said adjacent corners being unattached to each other to provide filling openings there at substantially diagonally aligned for initial introduction of filler material linto .respective diagonally located-compartments, and insulating fillcrmaterial occupying the respective compartments.

V2. A thermally insulated article according to claim 1, wherein the article is substantially of rectangular shape and At-he compartments are of quadrangular shape.

4References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,942,989 Thomson Jan. 9, 1934 2,028,388 Gerard et al. Jan. 2l, 1936 2,464,380 Daiber Mar. l5, 1949 2,493,032 Rheinfrank Jan. 3, 1950 2,538,899 Dodge et al. Ian. 23, 1951 

